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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Indie Music - Brock Geiger

The Beatles, among other things, gave us the perfect pop song: 2 and a half minutes of repetitive catchy guitar driven rock and roll. As partly a reaction to popular culture indie music often strays from this formulae. So, to understand the music of recent cafe performer Brock Geiger we need to look at the importance of indie music as a reaction, a protest but also a by-product of pop music.

Any who caught the show will be quick to notice Geiger's lack of repetition, a standard way of making songs "catchy" as well as his extended 6-8 minute songs. It is important to note that my definition of indie music is such that the musicians have subscribed to the ideals of the counter-culture movement and not simply published their own record.

Geiger crafted his songs in such a way that there was an obvious "tipping of the hat" to the tradition of pop songs while also a step beyond into the oblivion of indie music. There was a sense of journey and meaning to his set, but also of reverence for the ground he was stepping on (that being pop music).

These ideas will undoubtably come up in the next fews weeks at the cafe as we have a wide array of indie bands and singers.